Review

Peter Tagtren from Hypocrisy is a man with many irons in his fire, like having two bands to take care of plus being a world-wide known music producer. But it's not always Peter who stops and starts all these bands and side-projects. The black metal project named War was created in 1995 during a drunken night at Peter's studio known as ''The Abyss Studio''. Two members from Abruptum (It and Blackmoon as they prefer to call themselves) came up with the idea of creating a megaviolent black metal band together with Peter Tagtgren, and later they just sat down and started to churn out black metal music. Blackmoon explains why they decided to form the band in a text in the CD-booklet and there he says: ''...A band that should be like a true fist in the face to all theatrical, keyboards, female vocals, troll singing black metal bands that were comin out at the time...''. They sure did some intense black metal music. War is a raw, primitive, low-tech produced and absolutely in-your-face intense black metal band. War could be compared to Peter's own black metal project The Abyss and bands like Bathory and Marduk.

Time went by and the crew released an EP called Total War in 1995. And in 1997 they released their first full-length album known as We Are War. But due to various circumstances both albums are no longer available except a compilation that the band and their record label decided to release in 2001, this ''monumental'' release as they prefer to call it is a compilation called We Are...Total War. This compilation is basically a double-disc in one CD which includes both the Total War EP and album We Are War.

We Are...Total War is straight-up-your-*** black metal. This is an album that contains pretty much everything that you would expect from a black metal record. One-dimensional screaming vocals, high-pitched highly distorted guitars, blast-beat mayhem and satanic lyrics. Even if War sounds just like a typical stereotype band they manage to stay above the generic scale. ''All's'' screaming is highly effective and forceful. He isn't an overall hotshot vocalist but as a black metal singer he definitely knows how to deliver some throat-slitting screaming. Many members has left and joined War but very few of them really stood out in terms of skilled musicianship. Impious, Blackmoon and It have been handling the guitars and there is not much to mention about them really. The overall guitar performance is based on ultra-fast and repetitive riffing and tremolo-picking techniques. Nothing extraordinary but the level of intensity and energy makes this album worth listening to.

Mikael Hedlund from Hypocrisy is the band's trusted bassist. He is hammering his way through the riffing mayhem and drumming-hell with some really good bass-playing. You can actually hear the bass loud and clear and this helps to reduce and ''beef-up'' the incredibly raspy guitar sound. And now enter Peter Tagtgren and Lars Szoke who were both drummers in this band. Peter is probably the only member who impresses with his performance. He is completely off the ****ing chain! Peter smashes the drumkit like a maniac! His blast-beats might sound a bit off during the ultra-fast moments but other than that he is pretty much flawless in his drumming. The best parts are when he goes nuts on the double-pedals while he is bashing away with blast-beats. Peter was later replaced by Lars Szoke who was a former drummer in Hypocrisy. Lars was performing really well but he was not delivering as much blast-beats as Peter did. Lars was delivering a more diverse and technical drum performance which was also quite intense but it also helped to make the overall music a bit more digestive and varied.

We Are...Total War is an intense black metal album with both flaws and memorable moments. The first seven tracks were considered to be more experimental material and were not representing war in its true form according to the members. The truth is that the remaining tracks from the We Are War album sounds quite similar to the EP except that the sound production has been a bit more refined and thicker. The remaining members who exists in War today left a message in the CD-booklet that a new War will be released. Who knows, maybe they will release another album that will sound just like this one or will they release something completely different" The band is assumed to be active even today so maybe one day in a near future we will be able to enjoy a new War album. Black metal enthusiasts should definitely check out this album if possible. If you enjoy the Norwegian legions of black metal or Swedish bands like Marduk and Bathory then this is an album for you.

Sounds krieg. Pretty metal that Peter is the govenor of his own housing development. Good stuff you Swede, not only for having the worlds best healthcare system and benefits but for putting out awesome metal consistently. This buds for you.